Tech giants aim to fight India’s data storage plan
THEY FEAR STRINGENT LOCALISATION REQUIREMENT WILL RAISE COSTS
US technology giants plan to intensify lobbying efforts against stringent Indian data localisation requirements, which they say will undermine their growth ambitions in India.
US trade groups, representing companies such as Amazon, American Express and Microsoft, have opposed India’s push to store data locally.
It comes amid rising global efforts to protect user data but is one that could hit planned investments in the Indian market, where the companies currently have limited data storage. The issue could further undermine already strained US-India economic relations.
Tech executives and trade groups have discussed approaching Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office to appraise him of their worries. Separately, the industry is considering pitching the issue as a trade concern, including at the India-US talks in September in New Delhi, according to two sources.
Both countries are locked in a dispute over US tariff increases and on the Indian policy of capping prices of medical devices, which hurts American pharmaceutical outfits. “This issue is important enough to be discussed at the India-US trade level,” said Amba Kak, a global public policy adviser at the Internet company Mozilla Corp.
Surveillance made easy
“Data localisation potentially makes government surveillance easier, which is a worry.”
Critics say it could lead to increased government demands for data access. Tech firms also worry it ouwld hurt their planned investments by raising costs in setting up new local data centres. India is a lucrative market for technology companies, but a rising number of data breaches have pushed New Delhi to develop strong data protection rules.
Shamika Ravi, a member of Modi’s economic advisory council, said data localisation was a global phenomena and India wasn’t an outlier. “It’s in the long term strategic and economic interest,” said Ravi.
The main government committee on data privacy last month proposed a draft law, suggesting restrictions on data flows and proposing that all “critical personal data” should be processed only within the country.
Global companies are banding together to push back. In a meeting last week organised by lobby group US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, executives from Facebook, Mastercard, Visa, American Express, PayPal, Amazon, Microsoft and others discussed plans to approach Indian lawmakers and parliamentary panels on IT and finance, five sources said.